Four persons have been confirmed dead when a crane collapsed Saturday afternoon in the northwest US city of Seattle, the fire department said.
According to the Guardian, the crane was used as part of the construction to build a new Google campus in the city. The crane fell on six vehicles, killing 2 people who were in separate vehicles and as well the 2 crane operators. Of the four people killed, 3 were men while the last was a woman.
"The wind was blowing really strong," a witness told the Times, describing how the crane broke into two. "Half of it was flying down sideways on the building," she said, adding that "the other half fell down on the street, crossing both lanes of traffic."
A 25-year-old mother and her four-month-old daughter were in one of the cars that got smashed by the crane. However, they were in the passenger seat and managed to escape with non-life threatening injuries.
The mother and her daughter alongside a 28-year-old man were taken to the Harborview Medical center. A fourth person who was injured from the accident was treated at the scene,
The building in which the crane fell on was badly damaged, with several of it windows smashed.
A Google spokesperson in a statement said that the tech company was saddened to learn of the accident and that they were in communication with Vulcan, the real estate firm that is managing the site.
The presence of cranes in Seattle has increased due to the increased hiring from Google, Amazon and other big companies in the City. In fact, Seattle has more cranes building office towers and apartment buildings than any other in the US.
The fire department said it has launched a full investigation to know the cause of the accident.
"A full and thorough investigation into the cause of the crane failure is being conducted by Washington State Department of Labor and Industries," the fire department said.